A Chance For Happiness

01. The Fingering

CHAUNCEY REXFORD CAMDEN stares at the building before him, taking a long drag of his joint. There's a million places he'd rather be but unless he wants to get thrown out into the streets and denied of his precious trust fund, he hasn't got much of a choice.

Sighing, he puts out the cigarette, spritzing on some cologne to mask the scent of weed. He takes a good look at himself in the mirror, deciding he's presentable enough to join society - well, as much as a black sheep could be.

He finds his parents in the lobby, his sister, standing next to them. He force a polite smile on his face, moving towards them.

"Mother, father, how do you do?" he says, kissing his mother on the cheek before giving his father a terse nod.

His father, Seamus, eyes him with displeasure. "You're late, Chauncey," he admonishes.

Chance smiles wanly. "New York traffic, you know how it is."

"That's not an excuse."

Not wanting to start a fight and ruin his chances before even getting to plead his case, he face his sister, the only person remotely happy to see him there.

"Hello, Ginny. You look human for a change," he teases, a smirk on his face.

Ginny sticks out her tongue but she's smiling. "Whatever, at least I look like I wanna be here, you don't even like musicals!"

"What's there not to like about people singing things they could say in a few words or less?"

"Philistine," she murmurs, shaking her head.

Chance smiles. "Don't worry, Gin, I'm just here to escape Boston. It was starting to bore me."

"We should go find our seats," his mother, Debra, says, speaking up for the first time. "The play is about to start."

Seamus tucks his wife's hand into the crook of his arm, leading her to the theatre, Chance and Ginny trailing behind them.

"You remember Rowan Cox?" Ginny asks as they take their seats.

Chance nods. "Yeah, made out with her a few dozen times."

"She's the star of the play."

He scoffs. "No way! She's sucks at singing, sucks at everything really!"

"Well, Broadway doesn't seem think so since she's on her way to becoming a bonafide star. Bet you wish you hadn't dumped her now, uh?"

"Nah, still glad I did. The only thing worse than a clingy girlfriend is a clingy famous one. How about you? How's home been?"

She shrugs. "The usual. Mother's drunk half the time and the other half, she's making everyone else miserable. Father is never home, Alfred says there's a new girl and he's quite into her."

"So, same old?"

Ginny chuckles. "Same old."

Chance smiles but he doesn't reach his eyes. He hates that Ginny has to live in the same toxic environment he grew up, comforting himself with the fact that she'll soon be in college and hopefully, far away from his parents.

He glances at said parents who sit stiffly side-by-side, projecting a facade of a happy couple but he knows better. His parents have never been in love, theirs was a marriage of convenience and they've never pretended otherwise. But that doesn't his father's constant philandering doesn't hurt his mother, despite how aloof she make herself seem.

The curtain rising causes him to divert his attention to the stage. He glances at the pamphlet in his hands, realizing he doesn't know what the play was all about. Turns out it's a retelling of Cleopatra.